Books and Babies
by bendingwind
Summary: Aly is now 8 months and exactly 2 weeks and four days pregnant. She's confined to bed, and quite throughly bored, so she decides to "borrow" a few of Dove's books. What maddness will ensue?


** I can't believe no one's done this before. And I looked, to see if it had. If someone _has_ done it before, they didn't say so in their summary. **

**Another thing; I've never been pregnant (I'm only 13, people! I don't even have a _boyfriend!_). I was too young when my mother was pregnant with my brothers to remember how she acted. I don't have any cousins so I never saw aunts pregnant. In fact, I've had next to nothing to do with pregnant women in my entire life. All I know about pregnancy I know from sex-ed, books, friends with much younger siblings, and medical books (yes, I read them. And, yes, I am well aware of my insanity.) So, hopefully you'll take this into consideration and forgive me if the story isn't entirely accurate. **

**Oh, and before I start- I know, I know I _should_ be updating Blue Eyes or one of my other stories, but I don't feel like it. So ha! How's _that_ for rebellious (or perhaps just _extremely_ hyper off sugar cookies? The world may never know…)**

* * *

Alianne was currently staring at the wall, attempting the escape the boredom that had held her prisoner for the past three months (and exactly two weeks and 4 days). There was a stack of paperwork she was _supposed_ to be doing on the bedside table next to her, but at the moment she rather felt wall-staring was less boring than paper work.

Of course, she wasn't _too_ far behind… every half hour or so, she'd decide wall-staring was more boring than paperwork, and resort to doing that. She usually lasted another half hour or so before returning to wall staring.

Of course, Nawat visited at least twice a day, Dove came as often as she could, and many other people came to visit her, so she had her minutes of amusement, but life was still boring. The long hours in between outweighed the visits by far.

She glanced down at her incredibly swollen stomach. After only 5 months of pregnancy, she'd been confined to bed with threats of torture should she disobey the healer's orders.

_Only one more month to go_… she though with a slight groan.

Finally, Aly decided that she did _not_ have to endure this. With a suddenly bright face, she threw (though dragged would have been a more accurate term) the covers off her legs, and carefully slid out of bed.

_See, nothing wrong_.

She made her way (she refused to admit to herself that she was waddling) to her wardrobe, where she selected a pretty lilac sarong (telling herself that she'd selected one with a drawstring waist randomly, _not_ because she'd need it in order to fit around her stomach) and a white (and very stretchy) shirt.

She dressed slowly and carefully (once again telling herself it was because she was being careful, not because she was too tired already to go any faster) and admired her reflection in the mirror (carefully avoiding looking at her stomach).

She looked magnificent, she decided.

Except for the stomach. _Why_ did she have to have such a big stomach? It made her look _fat_!

Deciding she'd had enough action for the moment, she made her way to a chair near the window, and sat comfortably in it. She stared down at the people –all of whom seem to be doing _only_ boring things, she thought with a sigh- and wished the Rittevon's hadn't destroyed the royal library when they conquered the isles. Now it was full of boring books about things they deemed _useful_, and empty of any tales of epic adventures or kyprin legends.

Being Aly, she began to formulate a plan. Dove, she knew, had her own private collection of books, though she let anyone use them so long as they signed that they had taken them.

And there was her answer.

She would simply slip down to Dove's public quarters, grab a few books, and slip right back up here.

* * *

Aly stopped for what seemed like her fortieth rest break.

_It's going to take _forever_ to get back into shape_," she thought wryly.

After a few minutes, her panting stopped and she continued on. She was almost at Dove's quarters, anyway.

After what seemed closer to hours than minutes, she reached the large oak door that led into Dove's private library. Grinning at herself for accomplishing the feat of walking all the way to Dove's rooms (no more than a quarter mile, actually) she moved rapidly (as rapidly as one in her condition can move, anyway) toward the shelves. After carefully selecting several books, she piled them onto a table. After deciding that she had enough to last at least until a person came whom she could ask for more, she attempted to lift them.

It didn't take long for her to discover they were _far_ to heavy for her.

Finally, after several more attempts at lifting the pile, she relented and called a servant to carry them for her.

* * *

She smiled contentedly as she flipped the last page of the book, and reached over for the next one, a heavy volume of kyprin myths.

Nawat chose that exact moment to enter the room, and his eyes immediately found he books.

"Where did you get _those_?" he asked curiously.

"Dove's library."

"She brought them for you? That's nice."

"No, I went and _got_ them," Aly informed him, rolling her eyes.

"You _what_?" Nawat said, obviously getting angry.

"Yes, I went and got them. The healer was stupid to confine me to bed."

"I'm going to get her right away. There's no telling what you could've _done_," he said, eyes glinting slightly.

He strode out of the room.

* * *

"I'm sorry, Milady, but it looks as if we'll have to induce labor. Elsewise the baby'll strangle afore birth," the midwife, a common-born woman with exceptional talent, told Aly almost an hour later.

"You have to _what_?"

"We have to induce labor. When you went for your walk –which you were _forbidden_ to do- the baby shifted and now it's head is wrapped up in the umbilical cord. So we have to make you give birth before he strangles."

Aly's face was now dead white.

The midwife, shaking her head slightly, told Nawat to call the healers as she sorted through the multitude of herbs in her healer's bag. Upon finding a small leaf that seemed to be an odd shade of purple (Aly couldn't help but wonder if she were hallucinating from the shock of it all) she ordered Aly to open her mouth.

Aly complied robotically.

"There, dear, contractions should start soon," the midwife said, attempting to comfort Aly and utterly failing.

They only had to wait about a minute before Aly, face even whiter than before (which the midwife hadn't thought possible) groaned and clutched her bulging stomach.

"Ah… excellent," the midwife announced with a grim smiled, as healers began poring into the room. One held what appeared to be large shears, and Aly's eyes widened with fright.

She whimpered slightly as yet another contraction hit her.

It wasn't long before she was all out screaming from the pain. Perhaps her mother wouldn't have –rumor had it Alanna hadn't screamed once, even when giving birth to her twins- but she wasn't a knight, and she'd never been hurt this _badly_ before.

Finally the midwife announced, "I've got a head. Jukri, get over here with the medical shears."

Aly was in too much pain at this point to _care_ what was done to her, as long as it got this monster _out_ of her. Finally the baby was out, and moments later wailing at the top it it's (apparently very healthy) lungs.

"You've got a beautiful boy, Lady Alianne."

"I do?" she asked weakly.

The door opened slightly, and none other than Dove poked her head in.

"Can we come in now?" she asked crossly.

The midwife nodded.

Nawat, Dove, and, much to Aly's surprise, Cheonol entered.

"Who told you?" she asked, directing the question at Dove and Cheonol.

"The entire _palace_ heard you, screaming like you were," Cheonol informed her dryly as Aly's face turned a brilliant shade of crimson.

"Sorry," she muttered.

"Here," a healer said kindly, handing the baby to her. He was perfect. Absolutely perfect.

He had Nawat's nose, hair of an undecipherable color, and after a few moments he opened his eyes to reveal a brilliant shade of amethyst.

"George," Aly said softly, choosing to name him after her beloved father, "His name is George."

* * *

**And I couldn't think of any more after that, it seemed a good place to end, so the end it is. And, no, this will not be more than a one-shot. I've started to many stories, so I've limited myself to one-shots and updates on present stories, though I've got a D/N (and maybe not who you think) fic in the works…**


End file.
